Near Empty Nest Leads to Spoiling
My sister’s two eldest sons have now left home. The eldest is away on active service with the Royal Navy and the second eldest has just started at University. This has left their younger brother at home, alone with his parents who appear to be indulging his every whim.
The youngest boy, who is 13 years old, was diagnosed with a mild form of Asperger Syndrome a few years ago. He doesn’t really like to socialise very much, instead preferring to spend his time obsessively building model railways. His bedroom is now totally dominated by a large model rail network that takes up the whole room, just leaving enough space for his bed.
His latest obsession is Scalextric and his parents have allowed him to take over the garage with his huge Scalextric set. They’ve told me that he has shown very little interest in computer games but the latest Scalextric system that he was bought connects to a computer allowing him to race other enthusiasts anywhere in the world. Their hope is that this will encourage him to interact and socialise with others, over the internet, who share his interest and obsession.
However, the latest development is that the boy wants to integrate his model rail system with his Scalextric track and have both trains and cars running together in a large scale system. To build this system he needs space and the rooms in their house, and the garage, are apparently not large enough. So they are planning to build an extension to the rear of their house and knock down the rear wall of the garage in order to provide him with the space that he wants. They’ve already had some plans drawn up by an Architect and received quotes from a few builders. They’ve even been warned that the modifications to their home are likely to reduce its value, not to mention costing them many thousands of pounds to carry out. Are they going too far?
The young lad gets pretty much anything he wants, partly because he is the youngest, partly because he has Asperger Syndrome and partly because his parents simply want their children to have the luxuries that they didn’t have when they were growing up. But will this lead to the boy believing that the world owes him a living?
